Where to find an edge as information turns to commodity

Knowledge workers are facing a curious paradox. On one side, we’re coming from an evolution that made information and knowledge the most prized asset of our lives and economy. Now artificial intelligence threatens to make it worthless by commoditizing basic access to information and saturating the world with it.

Far from being scarce, information is now overwhelming. And as the volume explodes, it’s increasingly hard to distinguish what’s valuable and what’s not.

The risk for knowledge is high. If knowledge is treated as a commodity, it’s easily scanned and forgotten. This is a huge risk for all those companies using information and knowledge as the engine of their work. Don’t think only of media, research and NGOs. Frankly, most companies do. We’ve all been told our website needed a blog. And then a podcast. And whitepapers. What’s the role of all this in the new society asset?

Personally, I believe that to stay relevant, companies must evolve from knowledge producers to knowledge-first. What does this mean? It means recognizing that your true value is not the data you hold, but your proprietary process of elaboration. By focusing on the UX (user experience) of insight and treating it as a moat, you can turn static data into impact.

In this article, we will explore what it means to be knowledge-first and why the transformation is both a functional value (impact) and a strategic one (moat).

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How to find a moat when things become a commodity

It’s common knowledge that when something is abundant its value decreases. When it’s ubiquitous its value is close to zero. Information theory calls this noise to signal ratio.

So what to do when the perceived value of the item decreases? You find value elsewhere. The lesson is very clear to most consumer brands.

A quick example from water is eye-opening. Although the chemical composition of bottled water is the same as any other water, we are willing to pay a premium for it. For the ease to have it wrapped when we need it. To buy it cold from a super market when on a hot day. Or for the feeling of safety if we fear the water from the crane is polluted. We attach a value to trust and the convenience.

The lesson is that when a product becomes commoditized, the value shifts from the item to the experience of the item.

This is the shift the knowledge sector must now make. If your knowledge doesn't feel like a premium experience, it will be treated like a free commodity.

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What is "Knowledge-first"?

I coined the term "Knowledge-first" to describe a fundamental shift in business logic. Most companies treat knowledge as a byproduct, as something that happens while they are busy doing other things. A Knowledge-first company reverses this and treats knowledge as the primary asset.

Do you know what makes 90% of a diamond value? It’s not the diamond. It’s how it’s cut. Creating value in the knowledge economy is not about the data you possess. In information theory terms, data is just "bits." Anyone can buy bits. Knowledge-first is about your proprietary process of encoding. It is the unique way you filter, synthesize, and "cut" the raw material of information to create a specific perspective.

This specific perspective is not a luxury. It’s how companies make a dent. And in today’s world, it’s both a moat (strategic value) and a way to create impact (functional value).

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Knowledge as strategic value: the moat

Being harder to replicate, a proprietary process it’s a ring-fence around your business or institution. It’s a moat.

So, in a market that get everyday more and more saturated by information, your "ringfence" isn't the facts you share. It must be something else. In my view, it’s both the attributes around it (how it’s shared) and the end result it produces. But the attributes, the way it’s shared, are essential to produce the end result. Here’s an example, why do news shared by a particular source make so much impact whereas others don’t? Because of who says them. Because of reputation, credibility and trust. The fact is the same, the who determines the impact.

It all sounds reasonable said this way, yet most teams spend more time producing information rather than presenting it the right way.

Acquiring trust, working on the brand, is not a “nice to have”. Information is a commodity. When you elaborate on knowledge through a specific channel (be it a specialized academy, a high-end podcast, or an interactive platform), you are building non-computable trust.

AI can simulate logic, but it cannot simulate the reputation of a brand that consistently delivers high-signal insights. This reputation shields you from competitors who are just using AI to add to the noise.

The functional value: using knowledge to create impact

Finally, we must address the "actionability" of knowledge. Here again it makes sense to recallsome principles from Information Theory, where a message is only successful if itchanges the state of the receiver.

If you provide knowledge that is too complex or messages that are not understood, you are not making a dent.

So for knowledge to have functional value, we must look at three things:

1. Clarity: reducing the cognitive load on the user. Or, more simply, making sure the content is easy to understand.

2. Accessibility: meeting the user where they are. A lot of the high-quality content created by knowledge-first institutions can be repackaged into different formats to be easily accessible and be consumed by users in different times and places.

3. Actionability: the crucial one. The “now what?”. Is the now what clear enough when we disseminate content?

A think tank or a research firm creates impact not when they "produce" a paper, but when a stakeholder acts on that paper. By focusing on the "UX of Insight," you ensure that your knowledge doesn't just sit on a shelf—it creates a transformation.

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Conclusions

A knowledge-first approach does not mean turning attention away from the activities that produce knowledge. On the contrary, it advocates for a strategic balance between production (such as research) and distribution. Unfortunately, even today, most companies allocate a disproportionate amount of resources to the production side, leaving distribution, access, and transformation as mere afterthoughts.

How AI will ultimately reshape the world of knowledgeremains unknown. However, at Sparkr, we believe that the right approach willmake the difference between companies that succeed and those that are absorbedby irrelevance. If you are curious to learn more about our approach, pleasefeel free to get in touch.

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